---
title: Match
---

The `match` function provides a powerful way to handle different types of input and return corresponding outputs based on the input type, like a type-safe `switch` statement.

## Case Record API

The simplest way to define a matcher is with ArkType definition strings as keys with corresponding handlers as values:

```ts
import { match } from "arktype"

const sizeOf = match({
	"string | Array": v => v.length,
	number: v => v,
	bigint: v => v,
	default: "assert"
})

// a match definition is complete once a `default` has been specified,
// either as a case or via the .default() method

sizeOf("abc") // 3
sizeOf([1, 2, 3, 4]) // 4
sizeOf(5n) // 5n
// ArkErrors: must be an object, a string, a number or a bigint (was boolean)
sizeOf(true)
```

In this example, `sizeOf` is a matcher that takes a string, array, number, or bigint as input. It returns the length of strings and arrays, and the value of numbers and bigints.

`default` accepts one of 4 values:

- `"assert"`: accept `unknown`, throw if none of the cases match
- `"never"`: accept an input based on inferred cases, throw if none match
- `"reject"`: accept `unknown`, return `ArkErrors` if none of the cases match
- `(data: In) => unknown`: handle data not matching other cases directly

Cases will be checked in the order they are specified, either as object literal keys or via chained methods.

## Fluent API

The `match` function also provides a fluent API. This can be convenient for non-string-embeddable definitions:

```ts
import { match } from "arktype"

// the Case Record and Fluent APIs can be easily combined
const sizeOf = match({
	string: v => v.length,
	number: v => v,
	bigint: v => v
})
	// match any object with a numeric length property and extract it
	.case({ length: "number" }, o => o.length)
	// return 0 for all other data
	.default(() => 0)

sizeOf("abc") // 3
sizeOf({ name: "David", length: 5 }) // 5
sizeOf(null) // 0
```

## Narrowing input with `in`, property matching with `at`

```ts
// @errors: 2345
import { match } from "arktype"

type Data =
	| {
			id: 1
			oneValue: number
	  }
	| {
			id: 2
			twoValue: string
	  }

const discriminateValue = match
	// .in allows you to specify the input TypeScript allows for your matcher
	.in<Data>()
	// .at allows you to specify a key at which your input will be matched
	.at("id")
	.match({
		1: o => `${o.oneValue}!`,
		2: o => o.twoValue.length,
		default: "assert"
	})

discriminateValue({ id: 1, oneValue: 1 }) // "1!"
discriminateValue({ id: 2, twoValue: "two" }) // 3
discriminateValue({ oneValue: 3 })
```
